High School Literary
Criticism Papers
Valdosta State University instructors, VSU Archivist
Deborah Davis, and Janice Daugharty collaborated with
high school English teachers at Valdosta High School, Lowndes High School,
Echols County High School, and Clinch County High School to instruct high
school students for three days about engaging in the writing process, conducting literary and historical research on
primary sources, regional identity themes, Southern authors, the writer's role
as an observer, and writing literary criticism.
Students were prepared for the
project activities by reading a Janice Daugharty's
short story "Shorn Glory" and by reviewing a CD handout created by
the project developers containing primary and secondary sources and literary
criticism related to Daugharty's short story.
On day one of this project activity, Deborah Davis
presented a tabletop exhibit and a multi-media show on Daugharty,
and discussed the VSU archive collection of Janice Daugharty,
and her writings including various drafts of her works. She also demonstrated
how the archive collection can be used as a primary resource in studying a
piece of literature.
On day two instructors, Daugharty, and students,
discussed Daugharty's short stories, the writing
process, and sense of place as it related the
stories.
On day three instructors taught students about how to use historical and
literary research; and instructed students about how to incorporate what they
learned about sense of place into their critical essays.
As part of this project activity, approximately 100 high school juniors and
seniors submitted literary criticism papers for evaluation and nine were chosen
for this journal. The nine students whose essays were chosen presented their
papers at the Janice Daugharty Festival, a regional
writing conference, held on
The Necessity of Moonlight and Magnolias: Setting in a Southern-Based Story
by Mandi Corbett
Spring time in the South is not a matter of peeping violets or bursting buds merely. It is a riot of color in nature—glistening green leaves, pink, blue, purple, yellow blossoms that fairly stagger the visitor from the North. The miles of hyacinths lie like an undulating carpet on the surface of the river and divide reluctantly when the slow-moving alligators push their way log-like across. The nights are white nights for the moon shines with dazzling splendor, or in the absence of that goddess, the soft darkness creeps down laden with innumerable scents. The heavy fragrance of magnolias mingled with the delicate sweetness of jasmine and wild roses. (Zora Neale Hurston)
Southern literature is true-to-life in its representation of this magnificent scenery. The setting in a southern-based story is the root of the tree that they story becomes. As it grows, the story branches out to create the reader’s mood, helping to outline the general themes of the South and to develop symbolism throughout the story. The setting of southern stories is often a very important character that serves as a key element to help the story move and progress climatic moment.
A
good writer’s depiction of setting invites a writer into the place of their
story and locks the door, letting them see, feel, taste, and smell what the
area is about. One example of such an
author is Janice Daugharty with her short story, “Shorn Glory.” In this work, she takes advantage of the
topography, local color, and culture of the area to enhance the setting of her
story. “The first character
I ever created, the most important and lasting character I every
created, was the setting for all my short stories and novels:
Daugharty’s rich description of the setting places us in a small, southern county. Using phrases like “As the sun leveled overhead and holding on spits of white-hot fire, Clifford staggered his bicycle along the parched dirt road.” (Shorn Glory” 122), hints to the reader that it is summer time. The story sets us in the South by including such things as “the umbrella shade of a chinaberry tree”, a tree often seen growing in southern areas. Also, “The rear fender rasped in chorus with the locusts, and the spokes clicked in tune with crickets, flitting from ditches to dog fennels” (“Shorn Glory” 122) tells us that it is warm and in the country.
The setting often helps to develop the symbolism in the story. It was “The throb of sun on sand” that convinced the girls to rid themselves of their long, silvery locks. Daugharty writes, “Leaf shadows strobed their bright hair” (“Shorn Glory” 123). The shadows lying on their bright hair indicate a glitch in their religious life and that something life-altering may happen. Daugharty also uses the phrase, “Excited prisms of light glanced from the scissors to the dead shadow of the tree” to symbolize the breaking of religious tradition (“Shorn Glory” 128). The long, silvery locks were their chains holding them down to their mother’s religious beliefs. With the scissors, Clifford severed those bonds of conformity and set their individuality free. When Clifford awakes from his drunken sleep, it says “the sun was blazing directly into his eyes”, and he “hobbled out of the lessening shade” (“Shorn Glory” 131). It is afternoon in the story, and the sun setting. The lessening shade is Daugharty’s way of showing that Clifford is changing his way of life. His is going from a drunk, possibly to something better. As for the girls, all of their life they have been in a triplet mold. They all look the same with the same hair and eyes. At the end, the triplets are brought out of this mold and into a world of individuality. Daugharty uses this time frame to symbolize a change in Clifford and also a change in the girls.
“If
your settings are merely backgrounds for your stories, you’ve left out a
potential character” (“Write Where You Know” 32). Setting is not just where the story takes
place, but it is a character in itself.
Daugharty gives the setting life by giving it action such as, “sun
played on the mica flecked water as it sloshed from the bucket” (“Shorn Glory”
125). By taking the reader into the
story, air is thrown into the lungs, the South is brought to life, and the
setting becomes a character. The central
issues in this short piece are the breaking of religious traditions and coming
to individuality. In the South, religion
is an article of clothing that people wear to show their identity. Religion is passed down from the sun-browned
faces of grandmothers and grandfathers to their vulnerable, pale-skinned
children and grandchildren, much like the way the mother passes on her
religious beliefs to her daughters in this story. In the
“I
had to start with what I know, where
I know” (“Write Where You Know” 32).
Janice Daugharty uses the setting of
WORKS CITED
Daugharty, Janice. Going Through the Change. “Shorn Glory.”
Daugharty, Janice. “Write Where You Know.” Writer’s Digest, 77, 5. May 1997. p. 32 Galileo.
Hurston, Zora Neale. The
O’Connor, Flannery. “Some Aspects of Grotesque
in Southern Fiction.” Mystery and Manners.